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11. Signal To Noise
3 weeks ago
Time-lapse footage taken at the Very Large Array in Socorro, New Mexico; one of the largest Radio Astronomy Observatories in the world.
As a learning exercise, and something to challenge myself, I wanted to try to combine two of my favorite things: motion-graphics and time-lapse photography.
I also wanted to see if I could stretch my editing techniques a little further.
The VLA really is a legitimately amazing thing to see in person. If you've ever considered making a visit, you should.
It's an awe-inspiring feat of human engineering, and the surroundings are gorgeous. Unbelievable skies in New Mexico. I caught some nasty weather, but it was still a great experience. I'm definitely going back!
Canon t3i / 600D (2 -rented a second)
Canon 10-22mm
Canon 24-105mm
Canon 70-200mm 2.8 (rented)
Sigma 30mm 1.4
GoPro HD Hero
Kessler Crane Pocket Dolly
Kessler elektraDrive Basic Controller
Completed in After Effects.
Grading with Magic Bullet.
Music: "What It Is Without The Hand That Wields It",
Telefon Tel Aviv
Many, many thanks to Rob Chiu, Tony Scott and Paul Greengrass for their inspirational cutting style.
As a learning exercise, and something to challenge myself, I wanted to try to combine two of my favorite things: motion-graphics and time-lapse photography.
I also wanted to see if I could stretch my editing techniques a little further.
The VLA really is a legitimately amazing thing to see in person. If you've ever considered making a visit, you should.
It's an awe-inspiring feat of human engineering, and the surroundings are gorgeous. Unbelievable skies in New Mexico. I caught some nasty weather, but it was still a great experience. I'm definitely going back!
Canon t3i / 600D (2 -rented a second)
Canon 10-22mm
Canon 24-105mm
Canon 70-200mm 2.8 (rented)
Sigma 30mm 1.4
GoPro HD Hero
Kessler Crane Pocket Dolly
Kessler elektraDrive Basic Controller
Completed in After Effects.
Grading with Magic Bullet.
Music: "What It Is Without The Hand That Wields It",
Telefon Tel Aviv
Many, many thanks to Rob Chiu, Tony Scott and Paul Greengrass for their inspirational cutting style.
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Douglas KokeDirector, Editor, MoGraph Artist
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When I watched your experimental piece you shot at the swimming pool, I was inspired to get a bit more ambitious with my next little project.
Also, the glitchy editing and graphics were a good excuse to hide that fact that I was an idiot, and neglected to remove an ND filter off the telephoto I rented once the sun went down. Oops! Won't do that again! :)
Oh, well-- gotta work with what ya' got, right? :)
hdtimelapse.net
I'm really hoping to go back this summer and try again! I'd love to try and get some shots with the Milky Way next time.
It wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be, technically, but it was twice as time-consuming as I had imagined. I had to make a lot more frame-by-frame adjustments than I had anticipated. By the end, it was just sheer stubbornness that got me to finish it! :)
Thankfully, I had played bass in bands and have done a lot of recording in Pro Tools, so I could pick out the downbeats visually in the Waveform. Kind of a backwards way to go about things, but I couldn't think of a more viable option.
I wasn't sure I would have enough room on the memory cards I brought, so I shot in JPEG large. In retrospect, I would have gone with RAW, which is what I'm using for all the stuff I'm working on now. SO much more latitude!
I had trash bags covering the DSLRs, and was trying to be very careful with 'em -- there's no weather sealing on the t3i -- but I could plop that little HD Hero wherever I felt like. Such an awesome little camera!
thanks
I'm actually in the middle of wrapping up a re-design of my online portfolio right now -- I'm a graphic/web designer by trade -- and if you like, I'll make sure to include a blog entry detailing the process when I launch it next week. If you want, I'll send you a message here.
that would be great if you could send me the link
thanks
if you are you can just use quicktime player
file-> new screen recording
I think in a very real way, starting off with no budget is invaluably instructive. I won't pretend that I'm a well-established, genius film-maker who would know what to do with a multi-million dollar production anyway, but I can say that having limited resources has definitely forced me to make the most out of the things I do have access to.
I'm going to focus on improving my shooting, coming up with better ideas, and taking more creative risks, and then I'll worry about the money. I have plenty of room to learn and grow with what I've got right now.
At the moment, I'm really only limited by my laziness, and timidity, and thankfully, those are both things I can control. :)
I think CameraTracker will be my next software purchase. I was just kicking myself that I didn't get in on Video Copilot's last sale. :)
Can I ask, how did you get permission to shoot there ?
I checked with their guest services person when I got there to make sure my motorized dolly wouldn't cause interference, and she told me as long as the operator didn't notice any signal interruption, it was okay.
I'm hoping to submit this video to the NRAO and ask if I can go back this summer and shoot within the array after closing time. I saw some of the frames from Tom Lowe's "Timescapes" IMAX film and wanted to weep -- he's gotten some breathtaking footage of the Milky Way rolling behind the dishes. I don't approach Tom's level of talent, but it sure would be cool to take a shot at it!
I loved VLA, am going back in September and like you I am stunned by Tom's VLA footage in his latest trailer and would love to get some stills at night close to the dish'es.
Beautiful photography, great editing. You've taken the images and told a story that is clever and captivating. You've also used the edit style to assist the storytelling.
So many timelapse films are merely pretty pictures put to music. This far surpasses the vast majority of timelapse on Vimeo.
You should be rightly proud! Well done.
I'll be honest-- sometimes pretty pictures kinda do it for me. :)
I've seen some unbelievably compelling timelapse where the creator just allows the shot to play out with almost no editing. I think it all depends on the subject matter, and how good the composition is. Sound and music play a huge role as well. If I had chosen different music, I would have approached it entirely differently. I definitely wouldn't have edited it in "seizure-vison". :)
I enjoy watching very relaxed, natural editing, *and* super kinetic, spastic jump cutting. Every style has a place, I think.
A friend of mine submitted this clip to Fark.com, and it's gotten quite a few mean-spirited comments, based mostly on the jerky editing. So, clearly, it's not for everyone.
I dunno-- I learned a ton, and I pushed myself to the limits of my abilities, so I feel really good about it. I saw progress in my work, and that makes me happy.
In terms of the edit. It works perfectly with this subject matter. Not everyone may like it, but believe me it looks great so don't stress about it.
Keep up the sterling work!
Syncing up "sight and sound" in AE is definitely a chore. After doing some similar stuff the hard way, I discovered a trick that can do some interesting things. Highlight the audio layer (right click) > keyframe assistant > convert audio to keyframes. This will spit out a new layer called "amplitude". If you drill down the options on that layer you'll see you have keyframes for the left and right audio channels (and one for both). You can use an expression to link the channels to any other properties. So, for example you can make the screen glitch using a displacement map. "pickwhip" the audio to the displacement map, and now you have the glitches synced up to the music. The louder (higher amplitude) the music, the bigger the glitch!
Anyway, I'm still experimenting with it, but it seems promising in making my AE + music life easier.
Good luck and keep up the awesome work!
Awesome of you to share that! Sounds like that could be just ridiculously helpful, to me, and others. Thanks very much!
I learned everything from web tutorials, so just trying to give back to the community a bit. Best of luck and can't wait for the next vid!
I don't know much, but what little I do, I'm willing to share.
When I was younger, I used to go all Gollum and "protect" my "secrets". "Must keep the shortcut in Illustrator to ourselves, precioussss."
Now I realize that's just kind of selfish and dumb. :)
I'm pretty new to all of this, too. I've really only been playing around in AE for a couple years... and most of what I know comes from trial-and-error, or from guys like Nick Campbell and Andrew Kramer, who so generously share their knowledge with the rest of us.
I'm ridiculously grateful to guys like that. I wouldn't be producing squat without 'em.
Keep up the trial and error, but you've definitely got this. Tracking can be really tedious, but you did a fantastic job. That alone indicates you'll pick up even more advanced techniques easily.
Now if you'll excuse me, time to get back to some 3D tracking in Cinema 4D. ***banging head against the wall***
What does your worklow look like bringing in timelapse into AE? How so you deal with so many layers?! I find Premiere must easier to sync timelapse with music/sound, but AE has much more power to do a lot more.
I probably have some strange workflow, but this is how I do my timelapse stuff....
1) Get pictures off the camera and into a folder.
Since the pictures are fresh off the camera, they're still huge (physically and file size) so.....
2) Open a new file in Photoshop (I'm using CS5 btw). Click on File > Scripts > Image Processor
3) A new dialog window will pop up. Select the folder with the pictures from step 1. Then select an output folder. Put in the dimensions you want to resize the images to (I usually do 720 by 480). I drop the jpeg file quality to 6 or 7 as well, because it drops the file size immensely (less lag in AE later on), and it's a timelapse, so images are shooting by so quickly no one notices the lesser quality. Of course if the project requires pristine images, then set it to max. Hit "go" or whatever the button is.
4) Go drink a beer/coffee/etc while your computer batch resizes huge 16 mpx DSLR RAW files to 720x480 jpegs.
Now you're ready for AE
5) Create a new "Comp" (composition), put in the appropriate settings, dimensions 720x480, whatever FPS you want, etc
6) Go to File > import
7) Select the folder where you output all those images, hit ok
8) The files will all be put in a "Here's every file in the project" window on the side.
9) Highlight all the images and drag and drop them into the video window. This will create a separate layer for each image.
10) Now it's just a lot of time. Drag the end of each layer so they're one after the other. It should look like a staircase basically. Remember the topmost layer is the one that shows. So trim the end of each one going down, revealing the one below it.
That's about the gist of it.
If you've got a good comp AE can handle anything you throw at it. I'm currently working on a year long timelapse with about 7,000 pictures in it.
Anyway, hope this helps, off to soak my typing hands in a bowl of icewater! =)
If I'm using RAW, I'll batch process all the photos in Photoshop and Adobe Bridge. Then I'll take the resulting JPEG image sequence and use Quicktime Pro to make my video file.
I'm a glutton for punishment, but fortunately have a pretty beefy workstation, so I don't do any cropping until I get into After Effects. I like having the full 5k x 3k file to work with, so I can play around with framing, scaling, pans, etc. I drag the giant video into a 1920x1080 composition and either scale it down and leave it alone, reframe, or add whatever movement I want. Then I render that sequence, so I have a more manageable file to deal with.
I use that resulting clip to do all my noise reduction, motion stabilization, deflicker, etc., and render again.
And I use that file as the basis for everything else -- time-remapping, color-correction, effects, whatever. I just like to get the noise reduction and stuff out of the way first, because those are usually such giant render hogs. I'll be slowing down my RAM previews enough with Particular, etc.
For any motion-graphics I add, I precomp just about everything, and collapse the transforms. This keeps my timeline a lot neater, and it lets me apply changes globally to any other scenes that share the same graphic. It can get a little confusing when you have a bunch of nested comps, but it's a whole lot better than having 100 loose text layers littering the timeline.
My layers usually end up looking like this:
Adjustment Layer -- Color Grading (usually MB)
Vignetting (if any)
Lights / Flares / Diffusion (if any)
3D Content (usually multiple pre-comps)
Adjustment Layer - Levels, Saturation, Sharpness, etc.
Live Footage
I kind of treat my clips like little individual movies.
They each get color-graded separately -- I don't like to use one blanket look for an entire piece.
My working edit typically looks like this before final rendering:
Music
Sound Effects
Film Grain (set to overlay -- fights color banding)
Adjustment Layers (glitches, fades, etc.)
Finished Clips
I should probably do more of my final editing in Premiere, but a lot of times I'll just be lazy and stay in After Effects for the whole thing.
Import with Adobe Bridge
Export JPG at full resolution (gives you the flexibility to zoom/pan w/out image degradation)
Import into Premiere
Automate to Timeline all images to sequence, all on one track
Import and insert audio/music track
Edit/sync frames manually to audio (using ripple tools)
Nested sequence to other sequence, add transitions/effects
Titling and graphics on Track 2
Final export
I'm thinking what I could do is nail all the timelapse stuff to the music in Premiere, and either export entire thing to AE and go from there, or use Dynamic link to just do certain spots/area where I need the higher level effects.
Just keep doing this stuff, please.
It really was an amazing place to shoot-- it was one of those moments when you can't help but be aware that you're standing someplace very special. I just kept looking up at those massive antennas, and thought about the sheer genius required to build them and make them work, and the brilliant people collecting data from them. It's literally a physical monument to human beings' desire to learn. Pretty cool stuff.
And It's really perfect with the music!
(Sorry for my approximate English, I'm French)
Added to "Really Nice Time-Lapse" Channel;
vimeo.com/channels/277739
And I have to say, I go back and re-watch your "Leaf Down River" video quite often. I find that thing endlessly charming. Puts a smile on my face every time!
Keep learning and stay humble.
Well, I have no choice but to stay humble -- I've only owned a DSLR since June. I'm a total noob. :)
I've been slinging graphic design and websites until just recently.
I have a LONG way to go. Which is pretty encouraging, honestly. It's always frustrating when you feel your skills plateau, so it's cool to think I have some room to grow before I peak and/or burn out. :)
I'll most likely make some truly awful videos in the process, but as long as I keep experimenting and don't start repeating myself too much, I'm cool with that.
Best
If you get a chance, check out Rob Chiu, AKA "The Ronin". He greatly influenced this piece as well. I LOVE that guy's work-- he's a MONSTER talent.
Some used The Wiggler in AE to emulate camera shake.
A few were just flash frames, where I dropped the picture out.
Others were simply short adjustment layers, with a tint effect added, or a different look I had dialed-in with Magic Bullet.
I also used the "Twitch" plugin from Video Copilot in a few places. That's an addictive plugin. I warn you-- it's difficult not to over-use it sometimes. It produces some badass results, but it's so cool, it's easy to get lazy and rely on it too much. :)
Lastly, I used a lot of fake film burns and light leaks. You can easily get those at home. Just take your DSLR into a dark room, change the setting to allow it to record without a lens, and shine a small LED into the sensor while you're recording.
A guy much smarter than me, Jesse Rosten, came up with that idea. Check him out on Vimeo-- he does some really cool stuff.
Here's an awesome tutorial (5 parts) on everything you wanted to know about glitching your stuff out. De-rezzing, distortion, interference, the works. Best part is no plug-ins required, it's all native AE tricks.
shortformvideo.com/blog/2011/02/ae-tutorial-de-rezzing-your-video-part-1/
THX
I got all the levels, saturation, contrast, etc. pretty close to where I wanted them with an adjustment layer, and then tweaked it with Magic Bullet-- using a variation of the "No. 85" preset. Lastly, I added a *very* subtle blue-to-green gradient with a ramp effect.
Originally, I wanted a much cleaner, prettier look, but the pristine sun-lit footage looked really weird next to the green, gloomy footage in the rain, so I tried to find a good mid-point. As a bonus, I got this dark, mildly creepy, ominous vibe I wasn't expecting.
I'm very new to the medium, and I would have been absolutely lost if it weren't for the amazing tips and advice I got on that website.
Congratulation
The VLA doesn't search for extra terrestrials. I had the same misconception, too; I thought it was used for SETI, thanks to things I had seen in movies.
From reading the NRAO's website, I found out they don't have anything to do with the search for extra-terrestrials, really -- it's purely used for astronomical observation-- they look at stars, pulsars, nebulae, that kind of thing, which is just as cool, I think. :)
Not only is this a really neat short, I love the fact that you are so generous with your knowledge, and your comments are a semi-tutorial of sorts! Cheers! :)
I know how excited I get when I run into someone who's willing to share, and help teach me, so it's really fun for me to be able to return the favor.
I drew most of the schematics and diagrams in Illustrator, then brought them into AE, pre-comped them as 3D layers, then key-framed their orientation and rotation to match the antenna movement.
Some of the glitches in the editing were accomplished via presets, but all the animation was built from scratch.